Mobile Science Game CRISPR Crunch is Available Now

Mobile Science Game CRISPR Crunch is Available is Out

We are truly living in the future. Not only do we now have the technology to edit our very genes, but we can play a video game based on the process from a device that fits in our pockets. Moreover, the advent of titles like CRISPR Crunch has finally brought the fun into studying science. Our 13 year old selves would be reeling at the thought. This is a great way to play and learn science games.

The layman’s summary of the mobile science game CRISPR  comes from someone who couldn’t science their way out of a paper bag is as follows: CRISPR is a revolutionary technology that allows humanity to alter DNA inside a cell; as a weapon against disease (including inherited ones), CRISPR represents remarkable human progress. That is, of course, if it is in the right hands. 

Luckily, in CRISPR Crunch, those hands are your very own. This browser-based mobile science game is a gateway for gamers to literally play around with science. An educational intro and tutorial walk players through the processes of how viruses attempt to replicate themselves in our systems, and how CRISPR is designed to detect and eliminate these threats. 

CRISPR Crunch opens up this scientific world in a language that the majority of app gamers are all-too familiar with: a matching puzzle. Players (or should we say scientists) are tasked with matching the colored DNA sequence that a nefarious virus is attempting to inject into a cell with a single line drawn between DNA. Matching the sequence will then disintegrate the virus and inject the player with a sense of accomplishment in staving off disease. 

Failing to match the sequence in time (or skipping too many), however, will result in the virus replicating its DNA in the cell and causing it to burst, scattering viruses throughout the system of whomever it is we’re CRISPRing. And watch out for boss-level challenges in the form of mega viruses. 

Developer Play Curious hopes that CRISPR Crunch will be the kind of mobile science game that will push younger audiences on to delving into science IRL. Having won the Big Indie Pitch in 2021, the browser-based title is already making waves, and is set to release in app form later this year on iOS & Android. 

For now though, to rally against the onslaught of viruses through the power of CRISPR, be sure to check out the official website where you can play CRISPR Crunch for free today. Or, for more ways to blend science with video games (these ones with real life scientific advances) check out Borderlands Science or EVE Online’s Project Discovery).